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Gmail themes - customize your account using colors and images

I love surprises! Today (21st of November 2008), when I opened Gmail to check for new emails, I had to do a double-take. The Gmail homepage had changed. It was no longer the bland (and simple) page that I had grown accustomed to. Rather, there was a big image of a mountain stretched across the screen. Was I really on the Gmail homepage? Checking the URL assured me that I was indeed in the Google domain.
Gmail homepage changed - Gmail now offers themes to help you customize your account
A brief announcement, right under the Gmail logo, threw all the doubts in the bin. Themes for Gmail are now available with which one could add color and images to one's account. This was something I HAD to see. So I logged in and saw the announcement again, blazoned across the top on the screen. Check out the Themes tab in Settings to personalize the look and feel of your inbox .... Cool!

Personalizing your account with Gmail themes

Gmail themes are found under the Settings (where else?). Click on the Settings tab on the left and then on the Themes tab. On the inaugural day, you can take your pick from 31 34 themes. These can potentially keep you busy till a month, if you like a change every day, and I suppose more will be added later - maybe Google gives us the ability to create themes using our own photographs in the days to come (read section below).
Many Gmail themes to choose from. You can also create your own or have them randomly loaded
Themes like Zoozimps and Candy have cartoon characters (cute!) while the most "serious" one, in my opinion, is Terminal which changes the Gmail interface to 80s monochrome terminal monitor along with fixed-spaced font (Courier, probably).
Candy Gmail theme - fun and cartoony Terminal Gmail theme - monochrome monitor with fixed space font, probably Courier
When you select certain themes, you will be asked to provide your location (Country/Region and City). These themes use this information to determine the time at your place to display appropriate colors and images. So for example, if you log in at your Gmail account in the night, the photograph which was sunbathed during the day would turn to a night image. Having said that, I am not entirely sure why the user needs to enter this information because to know the local time, the programmers could have simply used JavaScript... Or maybe there is more to it. Maybe knowing the location could change the theme colors and image depending on the weather. I counted 10 Gmail themes that ask for the user location - Tree, Beach, Mountains, Summer Ocean, Phantasea, Graffiti, Planets, Bus Stop, Ninja and Tea House.
Provide your location  to some Gmail themes that will change depending on the local time ... maybe weather?

Which Gmail theme did I selected?

I chose the Shiny theme if you really want to know. No cartoony or cute characters for me... I like my screen to be clear of distracting elements. I could have stuck with the default but I had to try this out - at least for a few days.
Candy and Tea House were too "girly" for me (if you know what I mean) and Terminal was such an eye sore (though it did bring back memories of the "good ol' days"). The Planets theme was one that I did consider using - loved its night time photograph - but decided against.

How can you make your own Gmail themes?

So you want to create your own Gmail theme? I guess a lot of you would want to do that... right? As of now, I did not find an option through which you could make a Gmail theme with your own images and colors. However, knowing Google, they might just provide us options for creating themes using our own images and colors in the future. If Google always listens to user feedback, here is one from me - Could you please let us create our own themes... pretty please?
Thinking about it a little more - what is involved in creating a Gmail theme? I understand that some themes are more complex than others, especially those that involve changing images depending on time when the user logs in. The simpler themes would require just the background image and colors settings for the tabs and links. I may be proved wrong, but the day is not far when Google offers us the feature of creating our own Gmail themes with our photographs - yes, even those corny ones of the pet goldfish.
Update:On February 20, 2009, Google rolled a custom Gmail theme creator. You can now choose colors and create your own Gmail theme.

Cannot see Gmail themes - missing from account

If you don't see Gmail themes in your account, rest assured you haven't been discriminated against. The themes feature are not missing... you are not using the correct Gmail version or working from an unsupported web browser - read Gmail themes missing/absent from account to know more.

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